After stunning the world and Rebecca Adlington four years ago in London, Katie Ledecky made sure there was no slip-up in her second go around in the women’s 800-meter freestyle final. She just didn’t make sure there was a slip-up, she made sure she dominated from start to finish.
She made her statement of intent early on during qualifying, breaking Rebecca Adlington’s eight-year-old Olympic Record by over a second in her heat. She followed up that statement with a stunning swim, breaking her own World Record by nearly two seconds with a time of 8:04.79 to win gold by over 11 seconds over Great Britain’s Jazmin Carlin. Leah Smith of the United States finished sixth.
The Field
With how dominant Ledecky has been in this race, the race was going to be for the other two spots on the podium. American Leah Smith was the fourth fastest qualifier in this event and knew a good swim would get her on the podium. Carlin of Great Britain was the third fastest behind Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas. Spain’s Mirela Belmonte Garcia was the silver medalist in London but qualified last.
Dominance From Ledecky
It was already set from the get-go that Ledecky was going to control the race. As soon as she jumped into the pool, she was in the lead once they got into their strokes. Just at the first 50 already, the American was nearly a second up on Carlin and over a second up on Sarah Kohler of Germany while starting off already under World Record pace.
The lead extended to nearly two seconds over the Brit just after swimming two lengths of the pool as it was helpless for anyone to try and catch the American for gold, barring some kind of meltdown. The main race that everyone was waiting for was Ledecky - the World Record line, and so far, the American was winning.
The 19-year-old was just sprinting away from the field as the American made it a near three-second lead at the 250 mark over silver medalist favorite Carlin. Ledecky finally extended her lead on the World Record line to just over a second at 300 meters. Kapas made up some ground on the remainder of the field to touch third at the wall behind Carlin but was nearly four and a half seconds behind.
The World Record line just looked measly compared to what the American was swimming as she was a body length lead over her own World Record which she set this year in Austin back in January. Approaching 400 meters, the American started to go with more of a rolling kick to try and pick up the pace a little bit. She touched halfway through just a shade under 4:02, as she was destined for at least an 8:04-plus swim if everything held to form. Carlin and Kapas were both over five seconds back as it looked like the American would win by over 10 seconds.
You could see the laser-like focus in Ledecky as she continued to swim along the center of the pool with the lane line directly under her in the water. The lead ballooned so big that she was finishing her dolphin kick after the turn getting back into her strokes while swimmers were still finishing what was Ledecky’s previous 50.
With 100 to go, the lead was well over 10 seconds and 20 meters of the pool. The race was against the clock, and Ledecky was all but guaranteed to win this battle. With 50 to go, her World Record lead was over two seconds as she threatened for a potential time of 8:03-plus. She capped off a historic performance with the World Record and another gold medal. Kapas was just beaten by Carlin in the end for silver.
Ledecky becomes the second swimmer in Olympic history to win the 200, the 400, and the 800-meter freestyle events. Debbie Meyer did it at 1968 Games. She also becomes the third female American Olympian to win four golds in one Games along with teammate Missy Franklin who did it four years ago and Amy Van Dyken.